Promiscuous Primates on the Hunt
Recent findings in LuiKotale, Salonga National Park, in the Democratic Republic of Congo were published in the October 13, 2008 issue of Current Biology. “These findings are particularly relevant for the discussion about male dominance and bonding, aggression and hunting — a domain that was thought to separate chimpanzees and bonobos,” said Gottfried Hohmann of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
“In chimpanzees, male dominance is associated with physical violence, hunting and meat consumption. By inference, the lack of male dominance and physical violence is often used to explain the relative absence of hunting and meat-eating in bonobos. Our observations suggest that, in contrast to previous assumptions, these behaviors may persist in societies with different social relations.”
In bonobos, it is found that both sexes participate in hunting. This has made scientists question their former belief that hunting was associated with male-dominance, as witnessed in chimpanzees.
To learn more about the ever-wonderful bonobo, check out the article on bonobo society in Smithsonian Magazine, or this other great article from Smithsonian about bonobo language.
